N. Eugene Brundige was duly
appointed by the State Employment Relations Board to serve as Conciliator in
this matter, in compliance with Ohio Revised Code Section 4117.14(D)(1) by
letter dated November 19, 2003.

A hearing was held January 14, 2004
in the Hardin County Courthouse in Kenton,
Ohio.The parties timely filed the required pre-hearing
statements.

In their pre-hearing filings the parties identified
the following issues, as being unresolved:

The parties submitted to the
Conciliator, all other Articles that had been previously negotiated, as well as
the other undisputed sections of Article 19.The Conciliator agreed to incorporate them, and the
other Articles that have been tentatively agreed to, into this report.

The parties further agreed that the two separate units should
be treated as one in this report, and that the two sections of the Sick Leave
Article should be treated as one issue.

The Union
was represented by Matthew B. Baker.Appearing with him were Sergeant Ronald E. Lee and
Deputy Dwight Underwood.

The County was represented by Rufus
Hurst.Appearing with him was Michael T. Brown, Hardin County
Auditor, Gerald Potter, County Commissioner, Robert Hubbard, Lt. David V. Dyer
and Chief Deputy Ken Hilty.

BACKGROUND:

The bargaining unit consists of all
full time deputy sheriffs and all full-time sergeants.There are approximately fifteen or sixteen members
of the two bargaining units.

This is an initial contract between the parties and they are
to be commended for narrowing the issues going to conciliation to only two.

SICK LEAVE CONVERSION
AT RETIREMENT:

Employer’s position

The Employer proposes to allow employees with at least ten
(10) years of service who have accumulated one thousand (1,000) hours or less of
sick leave, as of the date of this collective bargaining agreement, to convert
up to two hundred fifty (250) hours of sick leave at the rate of pay at
retirement, to a maximum of six hundred (600) hours.

The employer argues that this amount is greater than the
amount provided by O.R.C. 124.39.

The employer’s proposal protects the interests of the five
employees eligible for retirement but limits future benefits by placing a limit
on the future economic impact.

The second part of the Sick Leave issue is covered in 19.14
where employees with more than five hundred (500) hours of accumulated sick
leave would be authorized to annually cash in up to two hundred fifty (250)
hours.

The employer notes that the current county policy does not
provide for annual cash out.

Finally, the employer notes that the
Fact Finder in his report, removed the ten year threshold for the sick leave
buyout, a result neither the
Union nor the Employer sought.

Union Position:

The Union
desires to maintain the current county policy and past practice and incorporate
the same into the Collective Bargaining Agreement.They note that the County proposal would be a
disadvantage for employees in the future and argue that the Sheriff, under the
previous and current administrations, has provided annual cash out of sick
leave.

To prove this point, the actual payout
records of several employees were provided.The Union provided
several cases on point that illustrate that past practice should be considered
even in cases of an initial contract.

Particularly relevant was an older case
(6 LA98, 101) written by Arbitrator Clark Kerr in which he notes: “The
arbitrator considers past practice a primary factor.It is standard form to incorporate past conditions
into collective bargaining contracts, whether these contracts are developed by
negotiation or by arbitration.The fact of unionization creates no basis for the
withdrawal of conditions previously in effect.”

This case differs in that the past practice was not initiated
by the County legislative authority, but by a county office holder operating in
opposition to the existing County policy.

In addition the County is proposing an arrangement in which
they would include a reference in the new contract that does allow for annual
buy out.

Finally, the fact one party does create a past practice does
not compel them to forever keep that practice if a change can be obtained
through the negotiations process.

Discussion and award.

The County, as a prudent employer, is
attempting to guard against large unpredictable unfunded liabilities, by
re-writing their future sick leave buy-out provisions.They have protected those persons who are currently
eligible to retire, and have added an annual provision that allows employees to
cash out a share of their unused sick leave.

I am persuaded that the employer’s position on sick leave
should be awarded.

The Contract language shall read:

Section 19.11 Sick Leave Conversion Upon Retirement.ANY EMPLOYEE WHO, AS OF THE DATE OF THE EXECUTION OF THIS
AGREEMENT, HAS ACCUMULATED 1000 HOURS OR LESS OF SICK LEAVE MAY, upon retirement under the Public Employees Retirement
System, employees may convert one-fourth of their accumulated sick leave to a
maximum amount of conversion of two hundred FIFTY (250) forty (240) hours
at the employee’s rate of pay at the time of retirement.ANY
EMPLOYEE, WHO, AS OF THE DATE OF EXECUTION OF THIS AGREEMENT, WOULD BE ENTITLED
TO SICK LEAVE CONVERSION IN EXCESS OF 250 HOURS UNDER THE EXISTING METHODOLOGY
OF ALLOWING ½ OF ALL HOURS ACCUMULATED, SHALL BE ENTITLED TO THOSE HOURS UPON
RETIREMENT.NO ADDITIONAL HOURS ABOVE THOSE CURRENTLY ACCURED SHALL BE
CONSIDERED FOR PURPOSES OF CONVERSION.Additionally, to be eligible for sick leave
conversion at retirement the employee must have worked for the Sheriff’s Office
at least ten (10) years immediately prior to retirement.The ten (10) years of service must be immediately
prior to retirement with no break in service.Upon conversion of sick leave all hours of
accumulated sick leave will be deemed waived.No employee may have more than one conversion from
the County.

Section 19.14 shall
read:

Section 19.14 Annual
Conversion.Employees who have
accumulated unused sick leave credit in excess of FIVE HUNDRED (500)
six hundred (600)
hours shall annually have the option of receiving a cash benefit conversion at
one hundred percent (100%) for part of the balance of their unused sick leave.Employees shall be permitted
to receive a cash payment for up to two hundred FIFTY (250) forty (240) hours
of accrued, but unused sick leave provided that the cashing out of sick leave
does not reduce the sick leave benefit bank below FIVE HUNDRED (500)
six hundred (600)
hours.The case benefit conversion shall equal one(1) hour of base rate pay for every two (2) hours
of accrued, but unused sick leave converted.Any employee who wishes to exercise the sick leave
conversion option must notify the Sheriff or his designee in writing no later
than the tenth of November each year.

WAGES:

Background

The parties have previously reached agreement that there
will be no wage increase in 2003.Likewise, they have agreed that there will be a
wage re-opener for 2005.Thus, the only area of disagreement is the wage
rate for calendar year 2004.(The parties have also agreed on Section 2:
Longevity Pay.)

Union Position:

At Fact Finding the Union
sought an increase of 7%.The Fact Finder recommended 3.5%.The Union is willing
to accept his recommendation and has adopted it as their final offer for the
purposes of Conciliation.

To guide the conciliator in the area
of comparable jurisdictions, the Union provided
information from the contiguous counties including Allen, Auglaize, Hancock,
Marion
and Union.These counties show an average starting salary for
Sergeants of $40,776.36.Hardin
County has a starting
salary of $31,886.40.The top salary for sergeants in much closer to the
average of $44,453.68 (HardinCounty
is $43,059.20)

Using the same counties, (plus Wyandot) Deputy Sheriff’s
are $6,988.87 less than the average. (Average = $29,868.87; HardinCounty=
$22,880.00).The top is even more dramatic with a differential of
$11,037.83 (Average = $37,537.03; Hardin
County = $26,499.20).

When one examines the increases awarded in these same
comparable counties the average is 3.3% [not including Union Country which had a
10% increase].For Sergeants the average is 3.75%.

Employer’s Position

The employer proposes an across the board increase of 30
cents per hour for all employees in 2004.

The County did a very effective job of demonstrating the
extremely difficult financial situation the county faces. The total
appropriation for 2003 was $6,128,378 and is reduced to $5,815,793 for 2004.The immediate economic projections do not give
reason to expect an upturn in the near future.

The County would be hard
put to fund the thirty cent, across the board increase, but would find the funds
to do so.

It was noted that other
County employees are not receiving any wage increases.

Discussion and Award

This is a difficult matter.There is no doubt that HardinCounty, like
so many other political subdivisions, is suffering from very limited funding
sources.

It is also apparent that the employees
in these two bargaining units have not been compensated adequately.

If this were Fact Finding, this neutral
would have the ability to “tinker” with the pay structure and find some middle
ground.It is not.This is conciliation and I must pick the position
of one of the parties.

The structure proposed by management is
problematic to me.Across the board pay increases do nothing to
maintain the relative positions of the persons within the units, and also do not
meaningfully address any inequities within the existing pay structure.

While I am not convinced that either
position is the “right answer” I believe, in light of the fact the employees
received no increase in 2003, and giving due deference to the opinion of the
fact finder, I award the
Union’s position regarding wages.

After giving due consideration to the positions and
arguments of the parties and to the criteria enumerated in ORC 4117.14(G)(7) the
Conciliator awards the above stated positions. Specifically those criteria are:

4117.14(G)(7)(a) Past collectively
bargained agreements, if any, between the Parties;4117.14(G)(7)(b) Comparison of the issues
submitted to the final offer settlement relative to the employees in the
bargaining unit involved with those issues related to other public and
private employees doing comparable work, giving consideration to factors
peculiar to the area and classification involved;4117.14(G)(7)(c) The interests and welfare of
the public, the ability of the public employer to finance and administer the
issues proposed, and the effect of the adjustments on the normal standard of
public service;4117.14(G)(7)(d) The lawful authority of the
public employer;4117.14(G)(7)(e) The stipulations of the
Parties;4117.14(G)(7)(f) Such other factors, not confined to those listed in
this section, which are normally or traditionally taken into consideration
in the determination of the issues submitted to final offer settlement
through voluntary collective bargaining, mediation, fact-finding, or other
impasse resolution procedures in the public service or in private
employment.

In addition, all agreements previously reached by and between
the parties and tentative agreed to, are hereby incorporated by reference into
this Conciliation Report, and shall be included in the resulting Collective
Bargaining Agreement.

Respectfully submitted and issued at London,
Ohio
this fourth day of March, 2004.

_________________________
N. Eugene Brundige, Conciliator

CERTIFICATE OF
SERVICE

The undersigned hereby
certifies that a true copy of the foregoing
Conciliator’s Report was sent by regular U.S.
mail to: